Thailand's Queen Mother Sirikit Dies at 93

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Thailand has been plunged into a period of deep and reverent mourning following the death of Queen Mother Sirikit at the age of 93, a figure who for more than seven decades stood as a powerful and glamorous symbol of the modern Thai monarchy, a devoted consort to the nation's longest-reigning king, and a formidable matriarch who occasionally and decisively waded into the country's turbulent political waters.

The Thai Royal Household bureau announced on Saturday that the Queen Mother, who had been largely out of the public eye for more than a decade following a stroke in 2012, passed away late on Friday night after a prolonged period of illness, bringing to a close a remarkable life that spanned a pivotal and often tumultuous era in the nation's history.

The palace's official statement, as reported by The Guardian, indicated that Queen Mother Sirikit had been hospitalized since 2019 for several illnesses. Her health took a critical turn on October 17 when she developed a bloodstream infection, leading to her passing.

In a sign of the profound respect and reverence she commanded, a formal mourning period of one year has been declared for all members of the royal family and the royal household, a period that will see the nation reflect on the immense legacy of a queen who was celebrated for her charitable work and held up as a national symbol of maternal virtue.

The news of her death had an immediate impact on the nation's political affairs. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul initially cancelled his planned trip to the ASEAN leaders' summit in Malaysia, a significant diplomatic engagement.

However, he later announced that he would make the trip after all, specifically to participate in a ceremony marking a ceasefire with Cambodia, an event that U.S. President Donald Trump is also expected to attend. This adjustment highlights the delicate balance between national mourning and the pressing demands of international diplomacy.

For the vast majority of people in Thailand, Queen Mother Sirikit will be remembered as the steadfast and elegant partner of her late husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned for an extraordinary 70 years, from 1946 until his death in 2016.

Together, they presided over a post-war revival of the Thai monarchy, elevating its prestige and weaving it deeply into the fabric of the nation's identity. For more than four decades, the royal couple frequently traveled to remote villages across the country, tirelessly promoting development projects aimed at improving the lives of the rural poor.

Their activities were televised nightly on the country's Royal Bulletin, making them a constant and cherished presence in the lives of their subjects.

Sirikit's commitment to public service and her maternal image were formally enshrined in the national consciousness in 1976, when her birthday, August 12, was officially declared Mother's Day and a national holiday in Thailand.

Her death will be treated with the utmost reverence in a country where the monarchy is protected by some of the world's strictest lèse-majesté laws, which prescribe severe prison sentences for any perceived insult to the royals, even those who are deceased.

Born in 1932, the same year that Thailand transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one, Sirikit Kitiyakara entered a world of wealth, privilege, and international diplomacy.

As the daughter of Thailand's ambassador to France, she spent much of her youth in Europe, where she studied music and languages in Paris. It was there that she met the young Bhumibol, who himself had spent parts of his childhood in Switzerland. 

Their initial meeting, she later recounted in a BBC documentary, was not a fairytale romance. "It was hate at first sight," she said, humorously noting that he had arrived late to their first meeting. "Then it was love."

The young couple spent time together in Paris and became engaged in 1949.

They married in Thailand a year later, when she was just 17 years old, a week before Bhumibol's formal coronation. From that moment on, she embraced her role as queen with a combination of grace, style, and a keen sense of purpose. She is widely credited with helping to revitalize Thailand's famed silk industry, collaborating with the renowned French couturier Pierre Balmain to create stunning outfits made from Thai silk and actively supporting the preservation of traditional weaving practices.

She also demonstrated a capacity for state leadership early in her reign. In 1956, she briefly served as regent, taking on the official duties of the head of state when her husband spent two weeks in a temple, temporarily becoming a Buddhist monk in a rite of passage common for Thai men.

Her life was one of unwavering devotion to her husband and her country, a partnership that produced four children, including her only son, Maha Vajiralongkorn, who succeeded his father as King Rama X in 2016. Upon his own coronation in 2019, Sirikit's formal title was changed to Queen Mother, a reflection of her new status as the matriarch of the royal house.

While the Thai monarchy is officially positioned as being above the fray of the country's often-unstable politics, which have been dominated by a succession of coups and short-lived governments, Queen Mother Sirikit, like other royals, at times intervened in ways that were seen as deeply political.

In 1998, she used her annual birthday address, a highly anticipated and nationally televised event, to urge the Thai people to unite behind the then-prime minister, Chuan Leekpai.

This royal intervention was widely seen as a crippling blow to an opposition plan to hold a no-confidence debate in the hopes of forcing a new election, demonstrating the immense, albeit informal, power the monarchy could wield.

Later, she became more directly associated with a specific political movement, the royalist People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), also known as the "Yellow Shirts." This movement's massive and disruptive street protests were instrumental in bringing down governments led by or allied to the populist billionaire, Thaksin Shinawatra, a deeply polarizing figure who remains a central force in Thai politics.

In a move that was interpreted as a clear sign of royal backing for the anti-Thaksin campaign, Queen Sirikit attended the funeral of a PAD protester who was killed in clashes with police in 2008. This act solidified her image in the eyes of many as a key figure in the royalist establishment's long-running political battle against the Shinawatra dynasty.

In her final years, after her stroke in 2012, she receded from public life, leaving a void that was deeply felt by the Thai people. Her long absence has only served to heighten the sense of a profound and historic loss.

As the nation begins its year of mourning, it will remember a queen who was a global fashion icon, a dedicated champion of her country's culture and rural poor, a steadfast partner to a beloved king, and a powerful and influential player in the story of modern Thailand.